The ruling Congress party encountered two peculiar challenges in the run up to this Punjab state assembly election, says a Chandigarh based party worker, who was on a team that made arrangements for the party’s major rallies in the state. While the party couldn’t deny tickets to most of its underperforming MLAs fearing poaching by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Punjab Lok Congress, the old timer confides that during its electoral campaign, the party had a hard time owing to financial crunch that followed Capt Amrinder Singh’s exit months before the election.